We’ve been neglected for so long, Awka North cries out to Gov Obiano

The people of Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State have cried out to Governor Willie Obianoa over their long years of neglect in the state.
They are wondering if they have been cursed, asking: “Are we cursed? Why have we remained at the darkest part of Anambra’s suffocating tunnel?”
These are questions the people of Amanuke, Amansea, Achalla, Awba-Ofemmili, Ebenebe, Isuaniocha, Mgbakwu, Ugbene, Ugbenu, and Urum which make up Awka North Local Government Area want answers urgently.
Since the creation of the state in 1991, the communities have remained undeveloped despite being in the Awka capital territory.
The people of the communities told Oriental News that all efforts made in the past to draw the attention of their past governors, especially Dr Chinwoke Mbadinuju, Dr Chris Ngige, and Mr Peter Obi, to their plights were fruitless.
The few structures, now dilapidated, which serve as schools, primary health centres, in the communities, they claimed, were built through communal efforts and handed over to the government.
Awka North referred to as the food basket of Anambra State has bad roads, which hinder the evacuation of their farm produce to the urban centres, making the people to now resort to the use of crude implements to fix their roads.
Investigations also revealed that there were no sources of potable water anywhere in the area.
The people cross the proverbial seven seas and forests to fetch water from bush ponds just as electricity supply in the towns is like a dream in a forgotten world.
According to them, officials of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company in charge of their zone allegedly extort money from them before supplying power even after paying their bills.
The villagers took Oriental News to the point at Okpuno-Isuaniocha high tension lines where the power officials allegedly disconnected them from the national grid.
“From every length and breadth of it, Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State represents everything dilapidated and rotten” Emma Nwankwo from Ugbenu said.
The communities revealed that the unfortunate situation has no doubt affected the socio-economic cum political progress of the area.
For example, school teachers posted to the few about-to-collapse schools in the zone have reportedly worked their transfers to other schools in the developed towns even as the few who stayed back operate from Awka and other urban areas. Investigation by Oriental News revealed that the National Youth Service Corps members posted to the zone suffer several attacks by hoodlums who have converted the dilapidated buildings to their abode.
The roads in the council area are nothing to write home about as commercial motorcycles find it difficult to ply on them just as several commercial and private vehicles were seen stuck in the muddy soils of the roads.
“Sometimes I regret coming from this part of the world. Of all the good places, I was born into this odd zone,” Mr Nwaneri, a commercial driver from Awba-Ofemmili lamented when Oriental News saw him struggling to pull out his vehicle along Ugbene-Awba-Ofemmili-Ebenebe road.
“It is just heartbreaking that since the creation of this state till now, there has not really been any meaningful development here. I travel a lot. I go places. So, when I tell you so, I know what I’m saying. But each time I come back here I feel very bad. It’s like going into dungeon. I have always wondered whether we’re cursed or the cause. Roads here are zero, health centres zero, school zero, everything zero when you compare them with others in other climes! I think it is high time we from Awka North led a peaceful protest to the Government House,” Vin Osinomumu said.
Other unfortunate road users who spoke to Oriental News noted that their horrible plight is better experienced than told.
“Unfortunately, all efforts to draw the attention of the government to our plights yielded no result,” they lamented.
In the area, hospitals and primary health centres, most of which were built through communal efforts and handed over to the government, are virtually dead.
While there are dearth of health workers, drugs, and other necessary medical equipment in most of them, others have been taken over by rodents.
For example, a 300-bed capacity cottage hospital in Amanuke built through communal efforts and handed over to the government has been taken over by harmful creatures just as a two-storey building and other surrounding bungalows have been deserted and the doctors and nurses’ quarters in ruins.
But in a renewed effort to attract government’s attention, the Council of Knights in Awka North under the aegis of Awka Diocese of the Anglican Communion converged on Christ Church, Urum recently, where they, among other things, deliberated on the problems starring the people in the face with a view to re-strategizing on how to approach the government on the matter.
At the meeting attended by their prominent sons and daughters including Chief Godson Ezenagu, a commissioner for Agriculture in Mr Peter Obi’s cabinet, a Save-Our-Soul message was sent to Chief Willie Obiano as a matter of urgent public concern to come to their rescue.
Speaking to Oriental News after the meeting, the Chairman, Joint Council of Knights, Sir Emmanuel Enemuo, regretted that the people of the area have over the years been neglected by the government in its development programmes even as he appealed to the governor to wipe out their tears.
He lamented that three vehicles conveying their members to the venue of the meeting got stuck at Awba-Ofemmili road because its deplorable state like the Isuaniocha-Urum-Amanuke road; Mgbakwu-Ebenebe road; Amanuke-Egbene road; Ugbene-Ugbenu road, and Achalla-Urum-Amanuke -hich are also death traps.
“We the people of Awka North have contributed immensely in voting in an APGA candidate to be governor. Are the people of Awka North not from the state? The roads that lead to Amanuke and Urum are death traps. The same is applicable to the roads from Ugbene to Amanuke and from Achalla to Ugbene as well as Achalla to Urum to Amanuke. Even, that of Awba-Ofemmili has two cars, if not more by now, stuck there for days now as I speak to you because no vehicle can enter that community now or go out. Everybody is trapped and we need urgent government intervention. I am appealing to Willie Obiano to as a matter of urgency intervene and save us this agony,” he said.
Most of the knights that were stuck on their way had to trek several kilometres to the venue while some others boarded commercial motorcycles at N2, 500, while others simply went back home.
Earlier, former Commissioner for Agriculture in Mr Peter Obi’s administration and a member of Council of Knights, Chief (Sir) Godson Ezenagu, condemned the neglect of his people by different governments that have piloted the affairs of the state since creation even as he passionately appealed to Obiano to write the council in his good book.
In her speech, Lady Angelina Okechi from St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Awba-Ofemmili said: “Our people are known for farming, and our major challenge here is that we don’t have good roads to transport our crops to other parts of Anambra. Our road is decayed. It’s only motorcycle that we use to convey our goods and we spend so much because of the bad roads. We are appealing to the state government to come to our rescue.”
A cross section of the knights who spoke to Oriental News said that the two roads flagged off by Peter Obi’s administration were for political purpose, alleging that the contractors abandoned the sites immediately after the election that brought his successor to power.
When contacted on the telephone, the member representing the people of the area in the Anambra State House of Assembly, Hon. (Mrs) Rebecca Udorji dismissed their allegations as baseless and unfounded.
She noted that she had been working closely with the government to attract development to the area, adding that “maybe the people giving the complaints just visited home from the Diaspora, and know little about recent efforts.”
Hear her: “What they’re saying is far from the truth. Basically, we know, really that Awka North is backward; there has not been any development before the last regime. But I know that since I came into office, most of the roads in the zone are under construction. The Amansea-Awba-Ofemmili road is under construction. Even last week I was discussing with Governor Willie Obiano over the bridge he supervised when he came in newly, and they’re giving me assurance that it was because of the rain that they stopped working on that road; that once the rain stops they’ll start. So, they can’t tell me that there is no development coming into Awka North. I have also been their voice. So, I think the problem we are having is that we’ve been backward. Awka North is the poorest before, but for now, some of the roads are being done.”